'Preacher' Renewed for Second Season at AMC

The comic book drama from Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Sam Catlin will expand to 13 episodes in 2017.

AMC is staying loyal to Preacher.

The cable network has renewed the Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Sam Catlin drama based on the Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion comic for a second season.

Season two of the series will grow from 10 episodes to 13 when it returns in 2017.

Starring Dominic Cooper as a badass Texas preacher, Preacher has had a long road to the screen. First put in development in 2008 as a feature film, the project landed at AMC in 2014 and was picked up to pilot in December 2014. Producers then embarked on an extensive casting process that saw them pluck breakout Ruth Negga and Joseph Gilgun from abroad. Rogen and Goldberg, both diehard fans of the comic, directed the pilot. Ennis and Dillion are on board as co-executive producers.

Co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and ABC Studios, the graphic drama ranks as the No. 2 new series on cable this year among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic and adults 25-54. It is averaging 3.3 million viewers per episode when factoring in three days of delayed viewing.

“Preacher is a special television program and we’re eager to share with fans the rest of this wild first season and, now, an expanded second season,” AMC president Charlie Collier said Wednesday in a statement. “What Sam, Seth, Evan and the entire creative team have achieved in bringing Garth Ennis’ graphic novel to the screen is extraordinary. We look forward to more time with these unforgettable characters be it in Heaven, Hell, Texas or beyond.”

The news comes as AMC will look to lure new viewers to the series with a marathon of the first five episodes starting Thursday at 9 p.m. with the sixth episode set to air Sunday at 9 p.m., where the drama has faced stiff competition from HBO's Game of Thrones in the same slot.

For AMC, Preacher is part of a scripted roster that also includes the final season of Hell on Wheels, The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, Halt & Catch Fire, Turn, Better Call Saul, Badlands, Humans and Feed the Beast, with a decision on the latter yet to be determined.